Biography
Kenyan DJ and electronic musician Slikback crafts a fierce, unpredictable strain of experimental club music that fuses trap, footwork, speedcore, and additional genres. Tied to Uganda’s Nyege Nyege collective, he drew widespread acclaim for his scorching live performances and for late-2010s EPs including Lasakaneku and Tomo.
Born Freddy Mwaura Njau in Nairobi, Kenya, he grew up listening chiefly to radio and initially gravitated toward trap and gqom. After relocating to Uganda to attend university, he encountered more experimental strains of dance music. Employed at the Nyege Nyege collective’s Kampala studios, he absorbed sounds from Jlin, Errorsmith, and Amnesia Scanner along with material from PAN, Planet Mu, and Hyperdub. He channeled these fresh influences into his own fractured, explosive style of club music and began producing tracks on his laptop in 2017. His debut EP as Slikback, Lasakaneku, came out on Nyege Nyege’s sister label Hakuna Kulala in 2018. Standout sets at that year’s Nyege Nyege and Unsound festivals drew strong praise from the dance-music press, and Slikback devoted much of the next year to international touring.
February 2019 saw the arrival of his second EP, Tomo, while Slip A and Slip B both appeared that September. Following an April tour of China, he worked with several producers linked to the Shanghai-based SVBKVLT label—33EMYBW, Osheyack, and Hyph11e—on the Slip EPs. Hakuna Kulala later compiled his first two EPs as a double LP with bonus tracks in response to strong demand. PAN issued a split EP by Slikback and Soda Plains in 2020, and the Kenyan producer supplied a mix of unreleased originals for Resident Advisor’s weekly podcast series. He also released a two-part, 60-track digital album titled /// that gathered early material, sketches, outtakes, and collaborations.
Born Freddy Mwaura Njau in Nairobi, Kenya, he grew up listening chiefly to radio and initially gravitated toward trap and gqom. After relocating to Uganda to attend university, he encountered more experimental strains of dance music. Employed at the Nyege Nyege collective’s Kampala studios, he absorbed sounds from Jlin, Errorsmith, and Amnesia Scanner along with material from PAN, Planet Mu, and Hyperdub. He channeled these fresh influences into his own fractured, explosive style of club music and began producing tracks on his laptop in 2017. His debut EP as Slikback, Lasakaneku, came out on Nyege Nyege’s sister label Hakuna Kulala in 2018. Standout sets at that year’s Nyege Nyege and Unsound festivals drew strong praise from the dance-music press, and Slikback devoted much of the next year to international touring.
February 2019 saw the arrival of his second EP, Tomo, while Slip A and Slip B both appeared that September. Following an April tour of China, he worked with several producers linked to the Shanghai-based SVBKVLT label—33EMYBW, Osheyack, and Hyph11e—on the Slip EPs. Hakuna Kulala later compiled his first two EPs as a double LP with bonus tracks in response to strong demand. PAN issued a split EP by Slikback and Soda Plains in 2020, and the Kenyan producer supplied a mix of unreleased originals for Resident Advisor’s weekly podcast series. He also released a two-part, 60-track digital album titled /// that gathered early material, sketches, outtakes, and collaborations.
Albums
Singles
